I’m an officer of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party in rural Minnesota’s 7th congressional district, hard up against the Dakotas and stretching from darn near Iowa to Canada. And unlike much of my democratic party’s leadership, I’m no longer blindly supporting Hillary.
Why?
I like Hillary, and she damn well is qualified to be president, and is way better than any of the flock of republican loons running for the office. On many issues Hillary comes close to matching Bernie in her past performance and campaign promises, but when we consider rural issues a gap appears and widens to a canyon. My first consideration in choosing a presidential candidate is how the candidate will impact my rural district, and Bernie is clearly the winner in that regard.
Let me espouse at length (but not too lengthy)… Hillary has a whole page devoted to rural issues on her web page, though half of it is regurgitation of her promises on issues that aren’t specifically rural, like access to capital and clean energy. The rest is a “Cliff’s Notes” couple short paragraphs of rural policy that for all I know was cribbed from a generic D-trip or DSCC position piece written by a big ag lobbyist. Hillary reputedly supports local food markets and a safety net for family farms, and probably puppy dogs too. It gets worse- While admitting that commodity prices have declined, Hillary wants to raise agricultural production. What part of “surplus” doesn’t Hillary understand? When the farm bins are full, the elevators are full, the on ground tarped storage is full, and they’re dumping corn anywhere they can, you’d think Hillary would look out the window of the tour bus and figure out that growing even more corn isn’t the solution? But from her schedule, looks like Hillary swoops over Iowa by jet rather than bus, so she probably wouldn’t notice the mountains of corn and other problems we’ve got out here!
Now surf on over to Bernie’s rural issues pages, and prepare to be educated- There’s no fluff and it’s over twice as lengthy as Hillary’s abbreviated take on us country folk’s “predicament”. Bernie rings all the bells, expounding at length on issues that Hillary knows nothing of or ignores. Bernie talks of regenerating soils, enlisting farmers as partners in conservation and stewardship. Does Hillary even support CRP? Bernie doesn’t talk about “commodities”, instead he wants an “abundant and nutritious” food supply... Hillary misses the “nutritious” thing completely. While there’s a disconnect between farmers and climate change in Hillary’s platform, Bernie wants to enlist farmers in the fight against climate change. Bernie supports family farms over “factory farms”, a term you’ll find nowhere in Hillary’s brief verbage. Bernie opposes the concentration of livestock processing under the control of less than a handful of mega corporations. Bernie opposes NAFTA and similar one way “trade” bad deals and supports full enforcement of antitrust laws. Bernie supports investment in rural renewable energy. Bernie don’t miss a detail… He even points out the need to repair the neglected infrastructure that farmers and rural folks rely on like dams and levees.
And Hillary? Beyond her “Cliff’s Notes” rural issues blurb that looks like something outa big ag, MIA…
So Bernie Sanders will be the best president for rural America, and that’s why I’m endorsing Bernie!